Who were the Iranian commanders killed in Israel's attack?
Israel struck dozens of targets, including nuclear facilities, military sites and private residences, across Iran on Friday, killing a number of senior military commanders in what it called "Operation Rising Lion".The Israeli attacks also targeted a number of other influential figures linked to Iran's nuclear programmes, including six nuclear scientists, IRGC-affiliated news agency Tasnim reported.Dozens of civilians, including children, have also been reported killed.Here's what we know so far about the high-profile individuals among the dead.
Mohammad Bagheri
Bagheri was the highest ranking military officer in Iran, being the chief of staff of Iran's armed forces - which includes both the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and the Iranian army.Bagheri joined the IRGC in 1980 aged 20 and, alongside his brother, helped establish the IRGC's intelligence unit during the Iran-Iraq war.He was considered less hardline than other commanders. He had come under criticism recently for a speech he made in April in front of the ancient ruins of Persepolis in which he called for peace and urged for the avoidance of war.Abdolrahim Mousavi has been appointed the new chief of staff of the armed forces, Iranian state news agency Irna said. He does not come from within the ranks of the IRGC, being an army general.
Hossein Salami
Hossein Salami was the commander-in-chief of the IRGC.Salami joined the IRGC in 1980 during the Iran-Iraq war, and went on to become a deputy commander in 2009, before progressing to commander in 2019.Known for his ability as an orator, he took a hard-line stance towards Israel and as recently as last month said Tehran would "open the gates of hell" if attacked by either Israel or the US.Mohammad Pakpour has been appointed as the new commander of the IRGC, Iranian state media report.
Gholamali Rashid
Gholamali Rashid was the head of the IRGC's Khatam-al Anbiya Central Headquarters, which coordinates joint Iranian military operations.Rashid fought in the 1980s war with Iraq and was formerly the deputy chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces.Since Rashid's death, Ali Shadmani has been appointed the emergency command's new leader, according to Iranian state media.
Amir Ali Hajizadeh
The commander of the IRGC's Aerospace Force, Hajizadeh was a prominent figure in charge of the country's missiles programme.The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Hajizadeh had gathered in an underground command centre along with the majority of the IRGC's air force commanders to prepare for an attack on Israel.The IDF said the group was then killed in a strike targeting the building.It said Hajizadeh commanded Iran's missile attacks on Israel in October and April last year.Hajizadeh was regarded less favourably by members of Iran's general public after he took responsibility for downing a Ukrainian passenger plane flying out of Tehran in 2020, which killed all 176 people on board.
Fereydoon Abbasi
Abbasi, a nuclear scientist, served as the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation between 2011 and 2013. He went on to be a member of parliament from 2020 to 2024.He promoted hardline positions to do with Iran's nuclear activities.In May, he spoke on Iranian TV channel SNN.ir about potentially building a nuclear weapon, and said he would willingly carry out orders to do so if he received them.
Nuclear scientists
A number of other nuclear scientists are also reported by Iranian state media to have been killed.They are:Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, who was also the head of Azad University in TehranAbdulhamid Minouchehr, head of nuclear engineering at Iran's Shahid Beheshti UniversityAhmad Reza Zolfaghari, a nuclear engineering professor at Shahid Beheshti UniversityAmirhossein Feqhi, another nuclear professor at Shahid Beheshti University
Live: Latest updates as Israel targets Iran's nuclear sitesIran's Revolutionary Guards chief, killed by IsraelWhy Israel has decided to inflict damage on Iran's elite nowWhat we know about Israel's attacks on IranBBC Verify Live: Tracking Israel's strikes on Iran using verified video
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Telegraph
26 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The mountain fortress Israel must destroy to topple Iran's nuclear programme
The events of the past few days appear to have proved that Israel has near-total air superiority over Iran. Iranian armed forces have been powerless to counter the Israeli airstrikes that have destroyed critical buildings and wiped out swathes of the Islamic Republic's military leadership. At least 14 Iranian nuclear scientists have also been killed by the unilateral operation, codenamed Rising Lion, which appears aimed at decapitating the country's nuclear programme. One key site remains unscathed, however: the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant. Located 20 miles from the ancient, central city of Qom, and about 100 miles south of Tehran, Fordow is one of two nuclear enrichment sites in the country. The other, in Natanz, was reportedly partially destroyed in the attacks. Hidden in the mountains, its key buildings buried deep underground, Fordow is an altogether more challenging target. Ringed by anti-air defences, it has become a symbol of Iranian defiance as well as its technological ingenuity. If Israel is truly to dismantle Iran's nuclear capabilities, it must disable Fordow. That's because here, uranium is enriched in centrifuges at up to 60 per cent, a shade under the purity needed to build a nuclear weapon. 'The entire operation… really has to be completed with the elimination of Fordow,' the Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, told reporters on Friday. A day later, Iranian sources reported that Fordow had been attacked, but with limited damage. 'The be-all and end-all of Iran's nuclear operation' Analysts have described the mountainous fortress, which sits within an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps base, as 'the be-all and end-all of Iran's nuclear operation'. 'If you don't get Fordow,' said Brett McGurk, who has worked as Middle East coordinator for several American presidents, 'you haven't eliminated their ability to produce weapons-grade material.' The problem for Israel is that it seems to lack the weapons to do the job. It is thought that Fordow's heavily fortified facilities could only be destroyed with so-called 'bunker busters', enormous bombs designed especially to penetrate buildings below ground. Israel is not believed to have such munitions, nor the heavy bombers needed to deliver them. The US, its key ally, has both positioned within striking distance of Iran. But Washington has been clear about its intent not to get directly involved in the current conflict. The result is what Peter Wildeford, a respected commentator and forecaster, calls 'The Fordow Paradox'. In an article on Saturday he wrote: 'The US possesses the military capability to destroy Fordow but lacks the political will, while Israel has the will but not the capability.' 'This fundamental misalignment between America's power and Israel's urgency explains why we're watching not just another round of strikes, but potentially the first act in nuclear proliferation's next wave.' Israel will keep looking for ways to destroy Fordow, in other words, while Iran will keep enriching uranium. 'Inconsistent with a peaceful nuclear programme' The Islamic Republic, which has long denied seeking to develop nuclear weapons, began enriching uranium at Fordow in September 2011. The site's existence had been revealed two years earlier, when declassified British, French and US intelligence reports detailed a secret facility 'inconsistent with a peaceful [nuclear] programme.' The news was so shocking that it provoked censure from China and Russia, which usually support Iran, and meant Fordow became a central point of focus in attempts to curtail the country's nuclear programme. At first, Iranian officials said the Islamic Republic would enrich uranium to 20 per cent purity for medical purposes. (The silvery-grey, radioactive metal is a critical component in the making of isotopes used in imaging and radiotherapy.) Under the terms of the landmark JCPOA nuclear deal brokered by Barack Obama in 2015, Fordow was to stop enriching uranium for 15 years and Tehran agreed to keep its level of uranium enrichment more widely at 3.67 per cent – a level considered suitable for civilian nuclear power and research purposes, but not nuclear weapons – in return for sanctions relief. By 2018, however, and the US's withdrawal from the JCPOA at Donald Trump's direction, the facility was reported to be producing enriched uranium once again. In March 2023, the UN's atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), confirmed reports that 83.7 per cent, near weapons-grade U-235, had been found at Fordow. Last week, in its latest quarterly report, the IAEA said that Iran had produced enough 60 per cent purity uranium – capable of being further enriched in a matter of days to 90 per cent weapons grade material – to potentially manufacture nine nuclear bombs. It was a 'matter of serious concern', it concluded. The rise of the bunker buster Evidently, Israeli leaders agreed. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Operation Rising Lion is aimed at rolling back 'the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival', adding the operation will 'continue for as many days as it takes to remove the spread'. Meanwhile, satellite images have shown extensive damage to the nuclear facilities at Natanz and another site, Isfahan. The IAEA confirmed that critical buildings at the latter facility had been damaged. Experts believe Israel could have used bunker-busting munitions in these attacks, albeit smaller ones than those which would be needed for a meaningful strike on Fordow. Justin Bronk, of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told the BBC that the pattern of explosions 'would fit with penetrating bombs being used', such as 'GBU-31(V)3s or even possibly more specialised penetrating GBU-28s'. Modern bunker busters were developed after the first Gulf War in 1990, when coalition forces came across Iraqi fortifications too strong and deeply buried for conventional munitions to damage them. The new weapons had a heavily hardened nose, initially made from an artillery barrel, and a delayed fuse, meaning they would not explode until after they had penetrated their target, rather than on initial impact. While the bombs the Israelis already possess are effective through up to six metres of reinforced concrete, the American GBU-57A/B is thought to be the only munition that could deal a serious blow to Fordow. Also known as MOP, or Massive Ordnance Penetrator, the GBU-57 is more than six metres long and weighs 14,000kg, with a 2,400kg warhead and a GPS guidance system. It can reportedly penetrate through up to 61 metres of concrete. The only plane capable of delivering it is the B-2 stealth bomber, which can carry two at a time. Another plant even more deeply fortified is under construction Still, Israel has other methods at its disposal. Some have suggested that conventional munitions, if repeatedly dropped on the same target, might be able to damage Fordow. Or it could use special forces on the ground to try to destroy the facility from inside. In April 2021, Israeli reports claimed Mossad was involved in an explosion that caused a blackout at the Natanz facility. In 2010, the Stuxnet cyber virus damaged several nuclear centrifuges. Such operations are risky, however, especially now that Iran will be on its highest alert. And even were they to successfully target Fordow, it would not represent the end of Iranian nuclear ambition. Another facility is under construction a few miles south of Natanz, at Kūh-e Kolang Gaz Lā, nicknamed Pickaxe mountain. It will be even more deeply fortified than Fordow. Without a dramatic change in US policy, or more ingenuity, then, the Fordow Paradox is unlikely to be resolved any time soon. Iran's nuclear mountain will continue to loom large in Israeli thinking.
Telegraph
27 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Israeli spies smuggled munitions into Iran in suitcases
Israel spent months smuggling drone parts, munitions and precision equipment in suitcases, shipping containers and lorries into Iran in preparation for Friday's surprise attacks. Similar to Ukraine's recent covert operation in which agents launched kamikaze drones hidden in trucks at Russian bombers, Israel's spy agency had laid the groundwork to launch the bombings from inside Iran, people familiar with the operation told the Wall Street Journal. Mossad smuggled explosive-rigged quadcopter drones and other precision-guided equipment over sea and land to cripple Iran's anti-aircraft missiles before the strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Citing former Mossad intelligence officers, Israeli military sources and unnamed persons familiar with the operation, the Wall Street Journal reported that small teams already in position near strategic sites took out a number of Iran's air-defence systems. They targeted dozens of missile launchers after they had emerged from shelters and were preparing to fire on the more than 200 Israeli warplanes racing across Iran's skies. F-35 jet fighters would eventually drop more than 330 munitions on over 100 targets, killing top military leaders and scientists in a strike Israel claimed was pre-emptive in order to damage the Islamic Republic's nuclear capacities. On Saturday, Israel released footage purporting to show its agents on Iranian soil deploying the attack systems that it said managed to severely limit Iran's immediate response. The exact date or location of the videos could not be independently verified. 'This is the deepest distance that we have operated so far in Iran,' Effie Defrin, Israeli military spokesman, told the Wall Street Journal. 'We created aerial freedom of action.' Mossad teams reportedly began preparing for the current drone operation years ago, using commercial trade to smuggle munitions and equipment into Iran, often without the knowledge of businesses whose cargo was being used as cover. A secret drone base was set up near Tehran, and Mossad commando team leaders trained in third countries were then returned to Iran where they prepared with small teams on the ground in central Iran at various strategic anti-aircraft sites when Israel's attack began. Iran has many more missiles than it does trucks to transport them, a battlefield bottleneck that Mossad took advantage of by hitting the surface-to-surface missile launchers while on trucks, or in the phase of being set up for launch.
Daily Mail
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
British Army troops could be deployed to bolster RAF base near Israel as Middle East conflict explodes and Iran threatens UK
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